1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile wireless terminal system constituted by a plurality of mobile wireless terminals, a mobile wireless terminal switching center, and an information provider connected to a telecommunications business owning this switching center, and more particularly relates to a mobile wireless terminal system having a function for simultaneously transmitting information from the switching center to a plurality of mobile wireless terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following systems are employed for providing information to mobile wireless terminals.
(1) On-demand type: When mobile wireless terminal owners wish to obtain information of some kind, a pre-registered ID number and/or password is inputted in an owner""s own mobile wireless terminal and transmitted wirelessly to an information provider. Thus, after receiving this information, the information provider confirms from this ID number and/or password that a sender is a registered user and then transmits the requested information using a telephone number and so forth to the mobile wireless terminal of this user.
(2) Push type: (a) The information provider dials up the mobile wireless terminal with a pre-recorded telephone number and stores the contents of the information in a memory of the mobile wireless terminal in the form of an incoming e-mail and so forth. Alternatively, (b) a special organization such as police simultaneously transmits information at a preset frequency to a plurality of special wireless terminals belonging to a given group for simultaneous transmissions. Or, instead, a small group such as skiers makes simultaneous transmissions of voice and so forth at an identical frequency to wireless terminals consuming very little power and within a narrow area of coverage.
With the on-demand type, when recognizing a need to obtain information, a mobile wireless terminal owner requests the provision of information from a party providing this information. This information provider then sends the requested information to the mobile wireless terminal. That is, to obtain necessary information, mobile wireless terminal owners must use their own mobile wireless terminals to request an information provider to provide this information.
However, the on-demand type is most often incapable of obtaining information required in an emergency within the most appropriate time scales, for example, warning information relating to earthquakes, tidal waves, typhoons and so forth, constantly changing financial information (for example, information effecting sudden fluctuations in share values, exchange rates and so forth), this information being generally obtained after a substantial period.
Furthermore, the provision of information is requested by mobile wireless terminal users in many cases during ordinary usage periods, such as during the daytime from about 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., which results in congested traffic and requires increase of traffic capacity to a telecommunication business.
Consequently, for obtaining necessary information using a mobile wireless terminal, a push-type information provision system with which information is sent in one direction from information providers is preferable to the on-demand type information provision system, and it is desirable, with this system, information which is not especially urgent be provided at night or in the early morning, such as from 11 p.m. until 8 a.m.
However, even with the push type information provision system, current mobile wireless terminal system requests that information be delivered to individual mobile wireless terminals in sequence based on respective telephone numbers. Therefore, if information is delivered to a plurality of recipients (N mobile wireless terminals), delivery of information to all these mobile wireless terminals takes N times the time it takes to send information to a single mobile wireless terminal.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile wireless terminal system with simultaneous transmission function that enables the simultaneous transmission of identical information to a plurality of mobile wireless terminals.
The mobile wireless terminal system with simultaneous transmission function according to the present invention is constituted by a plurality of mobile wireless terminals, a mobile wireless terminal switching center, and an information provider connected to the switching center. Further, recipient information, such as telephone numbers and/or ID numbers for simultaneous transmissions, is recorded in this switching center and in this plurality of mobile wireless terminals, and the switching center simultaneously transmits information, sent from information providers, based on telephone numbers and/or ID numbers and so forth. The frequency used in transmitting information is a frequency within a mobile wireless terminal usage band that has been reserved for simultaneous transmissions, or an unoccupied frequency within a mobile wireless terminal usage band that is detected automatically at the time of simultaneous transmissions.
Differences between the system of the present invention and SMS (Short Message Service) Broadcasting in GSM system.
1) In the case of the present invention, dial-up number for simultaneous transmissions is set at the first stage of the connection process. And simulcast is performed with a TCH (traffic channel) by having an information provider dial up the set dial-up number for transmitting information.
In the case of SMS, simulcast code is set in the GSM control channel.
2) SMS is essentially configured to give priority to voice-based telecommunications, not configured to be adapted to sending long messages. Long messages must be dealt with by combining short messages.
Differences between the system of the present invention and Cell Broadcasting in GSM system.
This service is essentially limited to the same cell or to the same region. However, with the present invention, worldwide simulcast is possible.
The present invention differs from GSM SMS Broadcasting and GSM Cell Broadcasting in that, with the present invention, the system can be switched to simulcast at the stage of dialing-up number, and the present invention may be applied to GSM, AMPS or any other wireless transmission system.
Since SMS Broadcasting and Cell Broadcasting are one part of GSM functions, only GSM can be used.